Some in GOP want sequester deal

One thing is becoming clear: Republicans want to find a way to replace the cuts in the sequester, despite some loud rhetoric to the contrary.

Top House Republican aides privately concede that the politics of allowing the cuts to hit — layoffs, furloughs and a stalled economic recovery — are tough to stomach and they would prefer to make a deal, on their terms of course.

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Boehner responds: Sequester like 'meat axe'

Obama urges Congress on sequester

POLITICO LIVE: Will Obama or Boehner win this round?

Speaker John Boehner signaled the growing GOP discomfort at his weekly news conference: “Let me make clear: I don’t like the sequester.” Boehner’s words are a sign that, while some Republicans are comfortable with steep and immediate reductions in federal spending, leadership would prefer to avoid them.

“I think it’s taking a meat ax to our government, a meat ax to many programs and it will weaken our national defense,” Boehner said. “That’s why I fought to not have the sequester in the first place. But the president didn’t want to have to deal with the debt limit again before his reelection.”

A top GOP leadership aide, speaking anonymously to divulge internal thinking, laid out 10 options that the House GOP leadership would be willing to accept, along with savings estimates developed by GOP policy aides, in order to avoid the sequester.

But any deal to avoid it comes with a major caveat: if Boehner doesn’t get the cuts he’s looking for, he’s more than willing to let the sequester go into effect.

“That is correct, I will,” he said, when asked if he would allow the sequester to hit if he doesn’t get his reforms.

This is not, by any means, a House GOP offer but simply is an attempt to jump-start the negotiating process with President Barack Obama. The president offered his own framework to stop the sequester — which takes effect March 2 — through “balanced” cuts to spending and reforms to the Tax Code that would raise revenue. The House GOP has passed bills to replace the sequester, but they’ve been ruled out by the Senate.

The Republican list of possible ways to replace the sequester and implement spending cuts includes a variety of proposals that have been raised repeatedly in previous fiscal debates over the debt ceiling and the fiscal cliff. They also don’t include additional revenue, which Obama has insisted on.